The Flynn Effect

It's called the "Flynn effect" — the fact that each generation scores higher on an IQ test than the generation before it. Are we actually getting smarter, or just thinking differently? In this fast-paced spin through the cognitive history of the 20th century, moral philosopher James Flynn suggests that changes in the way we think have had surprising (and not always positive) consequences.

                   - Ted Talk by James Flynn

James Flynn

It is well established that we are, as a culture, getting better at IQ tests. There is a lot of debate over this effect, but I like the explanation offered by Flynn himself.  He takes the bold position that we are, in fact, getting smarter - not just better at taking IQ tests.

In a nutshell, he claims that we have more powerful intellectual tools. Every member of this culture is trained in these tools from birth. The tools are shared.

This has profound implications for one of he central ideas of this blog: that consciousness itself is shared.

Specifically, we are demonstrably getting better at classification and abstract reasoning. Flynn helps us imagine how that could be by providing some insight into how typical well-educated people reasoned not so long ago.

I would say that the ability to make useful classifications and perform abstract reasoning are both key aspects of the way we experience the world - consciousness itself.

It is the culture, most notably the language, that is getting "smarter".

This is perhaps the strongest proof that we are programmed by language and culture.

The Flynn Effect

If IQ is a measure of intelligence, we are much smarter than previous generations. This is a verified fact. In this presentation, Flynn himself analyses the effect. At the core of his argument is the idea that we are getting better and better at considering the "hypothetical". This can also be seen as an enhanced capability to use analogy and find abstract categories: an ability that increases with successive generations.

Taking it all together, we see the power of analogy growing through time. In other words, it's culture as a whole that's getting "smarter".